Religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort.

Humanity cannot be degraded by humiliation.

Virtue will catch as well as vice by contact; and the public stock of honest manly principle will daily accumulate. We are not too nicely to scrutinize motives as long as action is irreproachable. It is enough (and for a worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out its infamy to convicted guilt and declared apostasy.

The parties are the gamesters; but government keeps the table, and is sure to be the winner in the end.

Religion is among the most powerful causes of enthusiasm.

Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves.

There are cases in which a man would be ashamed not to have been imposed upon. There is a confidence necessary to human intercourse, and without which men are often more injured by their own suspicions than they would be by the perfidy of others.